For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus *I* have begotten you through the glad tidings.
Paul writes to the Corinthians as their father, not as one more voice among many. Plenty of talkers at Corinth were competing for their attention, so Paul reminds them who first brought them to God.
The older English word "instructors" can mislead. Commentators say the word Paul uses does not mean teacher at all. It names a household slave:
The truth is that when the apostle speaks of ten thousand "instructors" in Christ, he does not mean the teachers. He means the meddlesome talkers at Corinth, and he gives them the mildly dismissive title of paidagōgoi (as in Galatians 3:24). That was the name for the slave who led the child to and from school — a boy-minder, not his teacher. Paul had the affections of a father toward the Corinthian saints.
So the verse is not ranking gospel work above teaching. The same writer rules that out:
Notice that this does not run Christian teaching or teachers down as worth less than gospel work, which is what the older English translation hints at. It is an appeal to the love that should bind converted souls in a special way to the one who was the means of bringing them to God. It is not a formal comparison of the value of one gift against the other.
The contrast Paul draws is between two aims. A minder gains from keeping his charge dependent. A father wants his children to grow up.
Some of these might favour the law, others philosophy; but they all wanted to keep the believers who listened to them dependent. They had little enjoyment of, or confidence in, the grace that is in Christ Jesus, so they steered the thoughts and ways of their admirers, as guardians do with the young put in their charge… A guardian like that gains by keeping his charge under control as long as possible, while a father's joy is to see his children grow up intelligent as well as loving.
Numbers were never the point. Ten thousand helpers of one kind cannot replace one helper of another kind.
He was not simply acting as an "instructor," as so many tend to do — passing on knowledge without a true interest in the state of the souls they teach. A thousand of these are not worth one man of God who has a father's heart. And having begotten them in Christ Jesus through the gospel, he would not stop caring for them.
Paul names the means: the gospel. The older translation these writers use reads "I have begotten you." A detail from the same letter settles the point:
"You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you," says the Lord in John 15:3. "In Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel," says the apostle in 1 Corinthians 4:15 — in the same letter where he thanks God that he baptised none of them except a few people! So James tells us that the Father "of His own will brought us forth by the word of truth."
God still worked through a man's preaching. What it left behind was not temporary:
God used the word spoken by His servant to give life to sinners dead in their sins. We may add that in this way a special tie of spiritual affection bound the apostle to those he was used to reach — a tie that will be recognised in eternity.
The verse is an argument from relationship. One writer notes both the force of that claim and its limit for us:
Something in Paul strikes me very much. We may find it at the bottom of our own hearts too, perhaps, but it has a character of its own — a claim he feels upon the affections of the people, and of the strongest kind. "You have not many fathers, but in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." In the state of the church now, we cannot have that kind of claim of relationship in the same way.
That love also explains the sharp parts of the letter:
A false teacher flatters his party and abuses those who oppose his aims. The one who is faithful to the Lord loves the saints; but this very love makes him watchful, and gives him moral courage to deal with what is offensive to Him.
- Word — Paul fathered them by the gospel, not by a ceremony. The same letter says he baptised hardly anyone in Corinth, yet he claims every convert as his child.
- Father — The word Paul uses for the crowd of others means a servant who walked children to school. Paul alone had a father's affection toward them.
- Heart — Instructors pass on knowledge; a father cares about the state of the soul, and a thousand of the first cannot replace one of the second.
- Freedom — Minders keep their charges dependent; a father's joy is children who grow up intelligent and loving.
- Bond — The gospel creates a tie of affection that will be recognised in eternity. That love, not flattery, gives a man courage to warn.
I entreat you therefore, be my imitators.
Paul has just shown what real service cost the apostles, while the Corinthians argued over which teacher they belonged to. His closing appeal is not an order but a father's request: copy me.
The picture he has just drawn could crush them. So he aims it as correction, not contempt.
This wonderful picture of the power of Christianity in the apostles must have shamed the Corinthians. In fact, it shames us all. Even so, the Apostle does not write to shame them as enemies, but to warn them as beloved sons in the faith. They may have ten thousand instructors, but only one father in Christ. So he begs them to be imitators of their father.
Other men had crowded in between Paul and his converts. A guardian and a father want opposite things for a child.
This is an appeal to the love that ought to bind converted souls to the one who was the means of bringing them to God... Some of these favoured the law, others philosophy. But all wanted to keep the believers who listened to them dependent, like small children... Such a guardian gains by keeping his charge under control as long as possible. A father's joy is to see his children grow up intelligent as well as affectionate.
Paul's right to ask this rests on how they came to life at all.
Beyond dispute, God uses His word in converting souls now as always. So the apostle tells the Corinthian saints, "In Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). Not otherwise. Speaking of the source, James 1:18 teaches, "Of His own will He begot us (or brought us forth) by the word of truth," not by an ordinance.
Kelly quotes an older translation; the ESV reads, "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel."
The chapter around the verse settles what he is asking for.
We must read his plea in verse 16, that they should be followers of him, in its context. He was not just seeking followers for himself. He urges them to copy his willing self-sacrifice for Christ's sake, instead of living for themselves.
These readers had nothing else to look at.
The young converts had only one way to see how Christianity could change men's lives. They saw it in the lives of the men who brought them the message... Would that be modest language for a servant of Christ to use today? And yet it was right for the apostle Paul to use it, and he used it with a deep sense of the grace of God. The Corinthian believers lived in a city known everywhere for its immoral living. People even had a saying: they called a young man who fell into wickedness "Corinthianized."
This verse could seem to build the very personality cult the letter attacks. In fact it is the cure.
Paul as a man counts for nothing here. What is worth imitating in Paul is only what is of Christ in him... Understand that in truly following Paul we are following Christ, and not Paul except as he followed Christ. Doing this delivers us well from the spirit that says, "I am of Paul."
The same limit applies to anyone we admire since.
It is not a question of what one man says, what another did, or what a third wrote. It is a question of the Word of God shaping our conscience... If I find that someone followed the Lord in a certain matter, it is a joy to think of it. I imitate their faith — but not because they did it. Faith led them to do something that is according to Christ, and I do it because I see it to be of Christ. The apostle says, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." That is our rule.
The copying has one measure, and it never changed from place to place.
If he wants us to imitate him, it is only so far as his ways are in Christ... Further, Timothy would witness that the Apostle's "ways which are in Christ" were the same in every assembly. Men have brought into their self-made systems ways that follow their own ideas. For anyone who bows to Scripture there are no other ways than those the Apostle taught "everywhere in every assembly."
- Father — Paul writes as the one who fathered them, warning beloved children rather than shaming enemies.
- Gospel — that fatherhood came through the preached word. God gives new life that way, so the appeal carries weight.
- Guides — they had countless guides who liked them dependent. A father wants children who grow up.
- Cross — he asks them to copy his self-sacrifice for Christ, not a life of self-indulgence.
- Christ — copy him only as far as his ways are in Christ. Then following him cures party spirit instead of feeding it.
For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in [the] Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways [as] they [are] in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly.
Paul answers the trouble at Corinth with a person, not a new argument. He sends Timothy — but why a messenger instead of a visit, and what are these "ways in Christ" he taught in every church?
Paul had just asked the Corinthians to copy him. Timothy comes to serve that appeal.
So that they may copy him, the apostle has sent Timothy to remind them of his "ways in Christ." If he wants us to copy him, it is only so far as his ways are in Christ. He has just set those ways before us beautifully in his account of the life of faithful servants.
The verse gives Timothy two credentials, and both mattered for this errand.
Timothy was the apostle's own "beloved child," and also "faithful in the Lord." That fitted him twice over for his mission. The believers at Corinth could be stirred to healthy imitation by the example of a man who stood to Paul in the same spiritual relation as they did. And Timothy was Paul's chosen partner in the work, and the trustworthy interpreter of his mind as an inspired teacher and guide of God's people. So his visit would bring joy to all who truly wanted the way of truth.
Faithfulness is the test Paul applies whenever he trusts someone with work.
God's service can be entrusted only to faithful men. If they are not faithful, how can they be fit to lead? So Paul, like Nehemiah, surrounded himself with servants of Christ who had proved faithful.
Paul stayed away from Corinth on purpose.
Paul would not go to Corinth because of their low spiritual condition. If he had gone, he would have had to use divine discipline (1 Cor. 4:18-21; 2 Cor. 1:23). Instead, Paul sent Timothy to them. Timothy was Paul's beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and also his companion and fellow worker. So he could remind the Corinthians of Paul's ways and teaching. How different those ways were from much that the assembly at Corinth saw and taught!
The verse says Timothy will "remind" them. Corinth's problem was not missing knowledge but knowledge left unused.
He would remind them, as they needed, of ways that were in Christ — of the teaching they had already received. He was giving them nothing beyond that. What he said was that they should work out in practice what they had received. He could say openly, and it was plain to see, that his ways matched the teaching he had given them.
The verse ends with Paul's claim to teach the same thing in every church. That claim reaches even to how a church handles discipline.
The apostle never adjusted his teaching to suit the assemblies, which would have falsified the testimony of the Lord. Grace is flexible when it deals with people one by one and seeks their blessing in Christ. Even so, he taught in every assembly exactly what he wrote to Corinth. The ways that are in Christ do not waver. They are straight, even if painful to the flesh… It is completely false that different assemblies held a different teaching on discipline. The apostle taught the same everywhere, and his writings press the same thing on places he never visited in person. It is God's assembly, and His mind does not change.
Paul's sameness in every place left the churches a pattern to follow.
The apostle's ways and teaching were uniform. He acted the same and taught the same in every assembly. By that he set the believers an example of the unity that should exist among assemblies in teaching and practice.
Hamilton Smith draws a sharp line between the ways men invent and the ways the apostle taught.
People have brought into their self-made systems ways that suit their own ideas. For anyone who bows to Scripture there are no other ways than those the apostle taught "everywhere in every church."
- Restraint — Paul stayed away from Corinth on purpose. A visit then would have meant discipline, so he sent a man instead.
- Son — Timothy stood in the same relation to Paul as they did, and he had proved faithful in the Lord.
- Reminder — Timothy carried nothing new. His task was to make them live out the teaching they already had.
- Ways — They were to copy Paul only so far as his ways were in Christ. Those ways do not waver, even when they cost the flesh.
- Everywhere — Paul taught the same in every church. So this letter was never local, and churches are still to agree in teaching and practice.